Blah Blah Blah...: Mission Trip 2010

I’m back from the mission trip. I reached home past midnight this morning and slept all the way till noon. Now, I’m feeling refreshed although slightly overwhelmed by the workload that awaits me.

The mission trip team

This was my second mission trip to 大谷地 (Arunothai, Thailand). 大谷地 is in Northern Thailand, situated near the border between Myanmar and Thailand. Although the job scope for the mission trip team was similar to that of last year’s, I felt that I participated more actively this time, taking on slightly greater responsibilities and getting to know the children living in 主恩之家 on a more personal level.

Night devotion in 主恩之家

We attended the night devotions with the rest of the children in 主恩之家 – something we didn’t do last year. I had the opportunity to lead the devotion on one of the nights. I shared a few verses from Proverbs 3:5-6 and ended off by teaching them the song 我需要有你在我生命中. I was quite nervous about leading the devotion because it was an impromptu kind of thing, and I had less than a day to prepare it. People who’ve worked with me before would know that I’m the sort of person who likes to plan things early and avoid the unavoidable as much as possible. This experience, however, was memorable because in my areas of weakness, God showed how he could use me, even at the last minute.

The first night teaching children English

We were asked to help teach the children at 恩惠小学/中学 English at night. We decided to teach from Primary 4 to Sec 1, which consisted of 5 classes. For the first night, we taught two classes at a time using the church hall. We played a children’s story in English and projected the words in English. While explaining the story, we found that most of the children could not understand enough English to know what the story was about. After some evaluation, we decided to change our teaching strategy. Each of us was to take a class for the remaining two nights and use English Christian songs to teach them.

Just before splitting up to teach the children English

Teaching the P5 class English

A picture taken with some students from my P5 class.

I was in charge of teaching the Primary 5 class (there was only one for that level). Although all of them were in Primary 5 (according to the standard of their Chinese), their ages ranged from approximately 9 to 15. On one hand, I had to deal with less enthusiastic teenagers who didn’t like being treated as kids, and on the other hand, young children who could be very noisy at times. One thing I liked about the way things were done in the school was that the lesson always began with a prayer led by one of the children in the class. Once, when I was trying to get the class to quieten down, one of the children pointed to a cane hanging on the wall, but I didn’t want to command attention from all of them like that. I taught them some songs, actions and the meanings of words. I tried my best to make the lesson as engaging as possible. On one occasion, I ended up drawing a violin on the board. Although I walked out of the classroom each time with my throat feeling sore, the pain was worth it. At the end of my last lesson, I told my class I was happy teaching them, and encouraged them to learn English well. The class gave me a really loud farewell greeting. A few children came up to talk to me, asked me to write my name on their exercise books. One of them even asked for my email. I really enjoyed teaching my class. To me, standing in front of the class and greeting them each time were moments I’ll never forget.

The campfire at 主恩之家

On Thursday night, I helped lead a campfire for the children in 主恩之家. We sang songs and I prepared constellation maps so we could do some star gazing. Stars are really one thing I like, because they remind me of how small I am compared to the universe, but how God still cares for this tiny speck.

Preparing for the children's gospel rally

Children's gospel rally

Children in my station using plasticine to make a model of a giraffe

The station I was in charge of: plasticine modelling

We held a gospel rally for the children in the school on Saturday morning. There were activity stations around the school, each manned by one of us. The stations aimed to bring out essential evangelical messages. I was in charge of the station about God’s creation. Communication with the children was a bit difficult because my Chinese wasn’t very good and they understood Thai better. There were also a number of children from minority ethnic groups who could not understand me. Thankfully, a teacher attached to my station helped me to translate. At the end of the activity time, I was alone in the classroom trying to pack up the materials. Suddenly, 2 girls from my Primary 5 class came into the classroom and asked if they could help me with anything. I was rather touched by their actions because I didn’t expect them to remember me, or even help me clear up.

Xiao Jun teaching the teachers English

逐家布道

On one of the mornings, I decided to take a break from helping xj teach the teachers English so I could join the rest for 逐家布道 (door to door evangelism). We went to a refugee area nearby. It was a really beautiful place to live at because there was a lake, fields of crops and mountains in the background. The people we visited were very friendly and welcomed us into their homes. One of the women we spoke to claimed that she was sin-less. She said she never did anything wrong before – never lied – and she has always been living a happy life. We were taken aback and didn’t know how to counter her claims. Although I spotted some contradictions in her arguments, I had no idea how to express myself in Chinese, so I just kept quiet. But this experience has reminded me that the mission trip is a spiritual battle.

Outing at the waterfall with 任焕、me、Xiao Jun、海惠、Jean、家威

A picnic by the waterfall

Last year, I regretted not getting to know the youth in 主恩之家 better. This year, I can safely say I’ve gotten to know them more. Xiao Jun, Jean and I spent our free time chatting with some of the youth my age - 任焕、海惠 and 家威. 任焕 and 海惠 woke up early to take Xiao Jun, Jean and I on morning walks to the town and to visit the market. On Saturday afternoon, They brought us to visit a waterfall and hot springs. We climbed up a bit of the waterfall and had a picnic together.

A picture taken with 李牧师, his wife and the mission trip team just before setting off

Leaving 大谷地 this year was harder. We’d gotten to know the youth much better this year by joining them for their night devotions, playing basketball in the afternoons and going out together during our free time. Thankfully, we can still keep in touch through the Internet.

I enjoyed this trip very much and if given the chance, I’ll go out to serve God again.